


Reunion

by cordeliadelayne



Series: Man-Made [1]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Future Predators, Gen, Human Experimentation, Light Angst, Never Trust Helen, Timey-Wimey, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 16:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6431740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helen returns. But she’s not alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Set after series 2. Originally posted to Livejournal in 2008.

Connor ran. It was the only thing he could think about, one foot in front of the other, lungs fit to burst, his heart pounding in his ears. The creature, ("one big motherfu –" the teenager who’d spotted it informed them, silenced only by Jenny’s glare of death), was right behind him and showed no signs of losing his tracks.

 _What would Stephen do?_ It was a question he asked himself more and more these days. Fool the creature, zig or zag, make it back up on itself. He remembered Stephen telling him that once, as they sat outside an anomaly waiting for it to close. He wished he’d taken advantage of Stephen’s advice more – not just about Abby, but about tracking, shooting, the things that made him useful to the team and which made Connor feel useless.

One loud roar right behind him made him realise that he’d been slowing down, his pace slacking along with his breathing. _Concentrate, Connor, or we’ll all be killed._ How many times had Stephen said that, or a variation of the same? Connor took some comfort in the fact that as the months went on it was said less with exasperation and more with fondness. He’d give anything to have Stephen roll his eyes at him again.

But thinking about Stephen wasn’t going to get him out of this mess. If only his radio hadn’t got tangled in his jacket he’d be able to tell the others what was happening. As it stood he had no idea where he was heading – the trees all looked the same to him – and he was fairly certain the anomaly was in the direction he was running away from anyway.

And then it happened. The tug on the back of his shirt that meant it was all over.

Except it wasn’t. Instead of claws and the flash of teeth he was staring up into impossibly blue, impossibly familiar eyes.

“Hey Connor.”

"St-"

“No time,” Stephen replied, pulling Connor further along the track and towards a camouflaged hide-out. He opened the door and pushed Connor inside then pulled him down so they were crouched as low as possible, Connor a heap of arms and legs, Stephen poised and calm, senses on the alert.

Connor took the brief respite to catch his breath and look around. Some sort of bird watcher’s hideout he guessed, which didn’t explain Stephen, but then what would? Helen had done what Cutter had feared, changed history again somehow. But if he remembered Stephen dying…

“Don’t overthink it till we get back to the ARC. I’ll even let you draw up a spreadsheet.”

“But you’re…”

“In one piece? Well,” he adjusted his legs and stifled a wince, “more or less.”

“But how…”

“Shh,” Stephen whispered, a clammy hand held over Connor’s mouth. Connor couldn’t see why he had to be quiet when surely the creature had run by them but then he felt it, the minute vibrations that Stephen had picked up on that he had missed. “Gun?”

Connor shook his head and Stephen removed his hand with a sigh. They could hear the creature rustling through the undergrowth, picking up on their scent maybe. Stephen shifted again, the wince more obvious this time, but he didn’t make a sound and Connor decided he might just follow his lead for once.

But just when Connor thought they were going to have their very own Jurassic Park moment there was the sound of shouting and then gunfire. The others had found him.

“Thank god,” he murmured, relaxing back onto the wall of the hut.

“I wouldn’t say that to her face,” Stephen muttered under his breath, so low that Connor only just managed to hear.

He didn’t have the chance to speculate though when the cry of “Helen!” made all the pieces slot into place.

Stephen and Connor exchanged weary glances. “It isn’t what it looks like.” Connor said nothing. “Okay,” Stephen tried again, misinterpreting Connor’s silence for criticism, “it probably is a little how it looks but…”

“Where’s Connor!” Cutter shouted, and the two men could just hear the click of a gun underneath his words. He couldn’t see it but Connor could picture the scene outside; he’d seen it before, only that time it was Jenny and not Helen facing Cutter’s wrath.

“Connor who?” Helen asked, cool and calm as always.

“You know damned well who I’m talking about. What have you done with him?”

Stephen stood up, his t-shirt riding up as he did so, revealing scarred tissue across his lower back that made Connor gasp. Stephen looked at him and then away, refusing to meet his eyes. “We should get out there before they kill each other.”

“Right, okay. Are you…”

“I’m fine.”

“Uh huh.”

“Where is he?” And this time it was Jenny’s clear voice asking the question.

“He’s right here,” Stephen replied, stepping out of the hut with Connor by his side.

Connor looked around and smiled to himself. Yeah, exactly as he’d pictured. Helen on one side with Cutter holding his gun at her, Jenny to his right, Abby to his left, and armed soldiers fanning out around them.

“Stephen?” Cutter asked, his voice cracking. The grip on his gun slackened as he faced his best friend before turning it once more on his wife. “What the hell have you done?”

“I brought him back. Aren’t you happy to see him?” She tilted her head in Stephen’s direction, a dark smile marring her face. “I know I am.”

Connor could practically hear the roll of Stephen’s eyes as he stood there, hands on hips, eyes constantly scanning their surroundings. Connor made a note of the dead creature lying behind Helen and hoped there weren’t any more where that came from.

“You’ve changed the timeline? Again?”

“Nothing so dramatic,” Helen purred. She took a step forward and the soldiers braced themselves. Helen only laughed. “I pulled him out of the room before he was eaten.” She spared Stephen a long glance that had Stephen’s body tensing. “Eventually.”

Cutter looked over at Stephen and whatever showed on Stephen’s face made Cutter’s eyes harden. “You created an anomaly and pulled him out?”

“That’s what I just said,” Helen replied, taking another step forward. Two more and she’d be pressed up against Cutter’s gun.

Connor looked over at Stephen, his eyes briefly lingering on where he knew the scars were. Clearly there was far more to this story but Connor wasn’t about to be the one to ask about it.

“Then what did we bury?”

“Oh, nothing important,” was Helen’s less than clear reply.

There was a rustling in the undergrowth and before he knew it Stephen and Helen had turned around, their senses pinpointing the source faster than anyone else. He expected that kind of lightening quick reaction from Helen but good as he’d been, he didn’t expect it from Stephen. There was something about the way Stephen was holding himself that was bothering Connor. Something un-Stephenlike. There wasn’t time to worry about that though when the man they all referred to as the Cleaner stepped out into the clearing.

“My, my. If it isn’t the Dead Men Walking Club,” Lester observed, striding into the forest as if he owned it. “Arrest her. And him.” He glanced over at Stephen. “We’ll need to run some tests.”

Stephen nodded. “I figured.”

The soldiers sprung into action, though more than one of them spared a brief deferential glance Cutter’s way before they moved. They had a job to do, but that didn’t mean they wanted to get in the middle of a domestic if they could help it.

Cutter glared at Lester who stared back, completely unrepentant. “I question her.”

“No, you don’t.”

“I…”

“Are too close to the situation. She needs expert handling.”

“I’ll say,” Connor muttered as Helen punched one soldier in the face, taking him by surprise before pressing her knife to the throat of another. The Cleaner was doing the same only he’d managed to get hold of one of their guns. Only Stephen remained standing exactly as he had been, the others all alternating between short steps forward and quick steps back.

“You really think I was going to let you take me in again?”

“Then what are you doing here?” Cutter demanded.

“Consider it an early birthday present,” she replied, nodding her head towards Stephen but keeping her grip very firmly on her knife.

“This isn’t necessary, Mrs Cutter.” Lester laid the emphasis on the “Mrs” and both Cutter _and_ Jenny glared at him. “There are more teams at the perimeter. You won’t be able to get very far.”

“Oh, I think I can get far enough,” she said.

“We can’t let you keep doing this, Helen.” Cutter stepped forward. “You don’t get to play god with people’s lives.”

“Would you rather Stephen were still dead?”

Stephen didn’t move but Connor could tell he was holding his breath.

“This hasn’t got anything to do with Stephen. This is about you destroying lives. How many innocent people are you willing to sacrifice?”

“Innocent?” Helen asked and her and Stephen’s eyes met. Still Stephen didn’t move or utter a word. And what Connor had believed was a calm detachment he now realised was a cold fury that Stephen was only just keeping in check. He stepped closer to the other man, wanting his presence to be reassuring. He didn’t know if it worked but the expression on Helen’s face flickered from flirtatious to wary before settling for something far deadlier.

“Let the men go, Helen, this doesn’t have to end in bloodshed,” Jenny said.

“So diplomatic of you, very Claudia-like.” She turned towards Lester. “I can be in the Permian before your men have a chance to blink. Come after me, and you’re all dead.”

“There is no way…”

A soft thud landing behind Helen silenced him. No one made a move, instead all intent on the future creature whose eyes were roaming over each of them, until they settled on Stephen. And kept on staring at him.

Cutter turned to Stephen in surprise and Connor had to use every ounce of his courage not to step away from his friend.

“Stephen?” Cutter asked, voice barely above a whisper. They could all sense it now, the unnatural pose that Stephen was holding, the way his eyes and that of the future predator locked. It was almost as if they were communicating.

“It won’t hurt anyone,” Stephen replied. His shoulders slumped and he seemed resigned to whatever decision he’d just made. Helen certainly thought so as she let go of the soldier she’d been holding and confidently turned her back on them all. The Cleaner followed but he kept his hostage flush to his body, and walked backwards, following Helen like a lapdog called to heel.

“Sir?” one soldier asked, his gun levelling towards the dead centre of Helen’s back.

Lester chanced a glance at the creature, then at Stephen. “You certain it won’t do anything?”

Stephen nodded, though he didn’t take his eyes off the creature. “Positive.”

“We need her alive.”

“Understood.” The soldier, Curtis or Charles or something beginning with C, Connor hadn’t really been listening, made some complicated movements with his head and fingers and then other soldiers were peeling off and going in the direction Helen had sauntered. Connor envied her her confidence, if nothing else.

“How are you doing that?” Abby asked, the first words she’d addressed to Stephen since the day he’d died.

“It’s easy,” Stephen replied, “when you share the same DNA.”

Connor did take a step back then. “What?”

“You’d be amazed what goes on in the future, Connor. And I need to concentrate so freak out over there will you?”

Connor bristled. “I’m not freaking out.”

Stephen raised an eyebrow but didn’t otherwise respond. He tilted his head to the side, eyes still locked with the creature until the creature slowly lowered itself to the ground and lay, panting but harmless. Stephen broke eye contact. “It’s fine for the time being. Though I only have a limited range with it…”

Cutter walked over to Stephen and stood in front of him. “What did Helen do?” he asked softly.

“She brought me back,” Stephen said. He looked up at Cutter and then away, staring at a point just over Cutter’s shoulder. “Just, not exactly the same.” He gulped and took a stuttering breath.

“Oh, Stephen…” Cutter murmured before moving forward and embracing the younger man. It obviously took Stephen by surprise as the seconds drew out before he was leaning into it, his hands tentatively reaching out to return the hug. Connor and Abby looked at each other, both unsure what to do now.

“I’m so sorry,” Stephen muttered into Cutter’s shoulder but Cutter shushed him and held him even tighter.

“We’ll fix this,” he promised, but Stephen shook his head and pulled away.

“There is no fix. Not if I…not without me dying…” He swallowed back a sob and moved out of Cutter’s reach. “There is no fix.”

“Then we’ll make do with what we’ve got.”

“Sir, she got away,” one of the soldier’s announced over the radio Lester was holding.

“Of course she did,” Lester sighed. “All right, clear up as best you can. Jenny…”

“Already on it,” Jenny replied, pulling out her mobile and moving away from the group. “Yes, I need to speak to the editor. Now.”

“We need to get Stephen back to the ARC,” Lester told no one in particular. “I presume he’s coming willingly?”

Stephen looked at Cutter and nodded. “Sure, I always fancied being a guinea pig.”

“What about that?” Abby asked, pointing towards the creature.

“Kill it,” Lester ordered, and when no one objected, the remaining soldiers did just that, their gunfire echoing around the forest, sending birds up into the sky, and everything else for cover. Stephen spared it a glance before stepping closer to where Abby and Connor were now huddled. Cutter joined them and they stood like that, no one quite sure where to look, until Lester cleared his throat. “Let’s save the Magic Moment until we get back, shall we?”

“You’re all heart,” Cutter observed, but he turned to move away, a hand on Stephen’s back steering him towards where they’d parked their cars.

“What about Helen?” Connor asked, wincing as Abby elbowed him in the ribs.

“She’ll be back,” Stephen told them.

“Can’t wait,” Connor muttered, this time side-stepping enough so that Abby couldn’t get to him.

“And what will we do then?” Jenny asked, coming up behind them.

Cutter shrugged. “Whatever we have to. We can’t let her continue. The stakes are already too high. We have no way of knowing what microcosmic effect her interference might be having.”

“She took you to the future with her, didn’t she?” Connor asked Stephen. It was the only explanation he could think of that made any sense. Or a good approximation thereof.

“Yeah. And trust me, we need to do whatever we can to make sure it doesn’t end up like that.” There was a cold edge to Stephen’s voice that Connor had only heard once before, when Stephen had been trying to stop the car he thought Valerie was in from getting away. Abby moved closer to Connor, their fingers not quite brushing. He’d never hated Helen more than in this moment.

“We’ll stop her,” Cutter told them.

“At any price?” Jenny asked.

Cutter didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.


End file.
